Christian Marquand (March 15, 1927 – November 22, 2000) was a French director, actor and screenwriter working in French cinema. A native of Marseille, he was born to a Spanish father and an Arab mother, and his sister was film director Nadine Trintignant. He can be seen as a heartthrob in French movies of the 1950s.

Career

His first film appearance was in Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête in 1946. He was first noticed in Christian-Jaque's Lucrèce Borgia (1953) as Lucrezia's lover picked up in Roma streets during Carnival, he is the next day pursued about through a forest like a game at bay by Lucrezia (Martine Carol) and her brother Cesare (Pedro Armendáriz). In 1956 he was directed by Roger Vadim in Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman) opposite Brigitte Bardot.

He appeared as the French Naval Commando leader Philippe Kieffer in The Longest Day that led to later roles in American produced films such as Lord Jim and TheFlight of the Phoenix. He later played the leader of a group of French in Apocalypse Now Redux.

Marquand directed two pictures, the more famous of which was Candy (1968).

Personal life

Marquand was married to Tina Aumont in the 1960s. He died of Alzheimer's disease, aged 73. He was a close friend of Marlon Brando with the actor naming his son Christian after him as did French director Roger Vadim.

Selected filmography

• And God Created Woman (1956)
• One Life (1958)
• Prey for the Shadows (1961)
• The Longest Day (1962)
• Behold a Pale Horse (1964)
• Lord Jim (1965)
• The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
• The Peking Medallion (1967)
• Who's Got the Black Box? (1967)
• Victory at Entebbe (1976)
• The Other Side of Midnight (1977)
• Evening in Byzantium (1978)
• Le Maître-nageur (1979)
• Choice of Arms (1981)
• Adieu Blaireau (1985)
• Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)

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